First Author | Rodríguez-Pinto D | Year | 2005 |
Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 35 |
Issue | 4 | Pages | 1097-105 |
PubMed ID | 15756646 | Mgi Jnum | J:97821 |
Mgi Id | MGI:3576446 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.200425732 |
Citation | Rodriguez-Pinto D, et al. (2005) B cells can prime naive CD4+ T cells in vivo in the absence of other professional antigen-presenting cells in a CD154-CD40-dependent manner. Eur J Immunol 35(4):1097-105 |
abstractText | The role of B cells as APC is well established. However, their ability to prime naive T cells in vivo has been difficult to examine because of the presence of dendritic cells. The current studies were undertaken to examine this issue in a model of adoptive transfer of antigen-specific B cells and T cells into histoincompatible Rag2(-/-) mice. By means of this system, we were able to demonstrate that antigen-specific B cells are competent APC for naive CD4(+) T cells specific for the same antigen. In vivo antigen presentation resulted in expansion of both CD4(+) T cells and B cells. The antigen-presenting function of the transferred B cells was dependent on the CD154-CD40 interaction, as transfer of CD154-deficient antigen-specific CD4(+) T cells or CD40-deficient B cells failed to induce T and B cell expansion in response to immunization. These results indicate that antigen-specific B cells have the capacity to induce primary T cell responses in the absence of other competent APC. |